PBeM Help - From Paper/Pencil/Dice to Wargames From: Trevor Wood <burwood@primenet.com> Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000 Hello all, Forgive me if I post off topic or do something wrong. I'm a newbie to this particular newsgroup. I am not a newbie to PBeM though and have both participated and run them over the last five years. I have run into one minor problem though and have come to this fine and wonderful group for assistance. My standard brand of game is good old fashion pencil/paper/dice roleplay, and I have GMed that arena for nearly 15 years now. I am currently running an extended campaign that has progressed into its second and a half year and my players decided that they all wanted to split up and do their own thing. I allowed it to happen so I could take a break for a time. My mistake. The online work I've been putting in is just as extensive as what I did when we all got together. I didn't expect my regular paper/pencil/dice campaign to turn into a PBeM, but it has, and it has turned out much better than I expected. Now, after my longwindedness, to the heart of the matter. One player of mine has amassed a significant sized army (10,000 est.) and is marching it northward in a nation controlled by a much larger army (250,000 est. total). Of course the opposing army is spread out into many smaller groups that will stand against the much smaller rebellion army. If the rebellion army can drive through the resistance though and make it to a northern area that is some six weeks march to the north, under constant harassment, they will be able to gain the backing of a much larger army. Not having been a big wargammer (participating in tabletop usually only at CONs), not having any good rulebooks handy (other than D&D Battlesystem - ugh!), and doing it via email has kinda got me stumped. I don't really want to just say, 'your army is defeated, you are captured, tried for treason, and hung and quartered' or 'you make it to the north gaining their backing and defeat the evil army'. I'd like to actually give the player a chance to battle the odds and to play this out with mechanics, tactics, and luck. I've downloaded the rules for Atlantis 4.0 (haven't snagged the binaries yet), but it looks like a bit of overkill for what I'm looking for. I've already made the character start tracking and organizing supplies, the encampments, and marching results. Anyone have any comments or suggestions on how I could resolve this and still play it out with some sort of mechanics and strategy backing it? I've never participated in a wargame PBeM, so I'm green in that arena. Are there specific wargame mechanics out there designed for PBeM? Is this type of PBeM wargaming going to take longer than I anticipate (a month or two at 3 mails a week)? Is there somewhere on the net that I should be looking for this type of information? Am I getting in over my head? Are there good quick-resolve (or slow if thats all there is) rules out there somewhere? Are the fantastical components (magic, aerial combatants, priestly powers) going to hinder me from doing this? What about siege warfare? The characters have vowed to rendevouz at a Tavern in X amount of time for real RP. I'd like to know if one of them is now a General, or if he just doesn't happen to be there when everyone orders drinks. Thanks in advance for listening to me babble, and any help, it is most appreciated. Trevor Wood burwood@primenet.com Referenced By Up